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Suddenly, he's sorry. With an election looming - and the polls showing increasing public unease - he chooses this moment to tell us the Government should have listened all those years to the concerns of the 'moderate majority'.

But is there an even more cynical reason for Mr Johnson's Damascene conversion?

By talking tough on immigration, Labour knows it can outflank the Tories, who have maintained an utterly disingenuous omerta on the issue, fearing - wrongly, in this paper's view - that they would be branded the nasty party.

David Cameron must address this. He can no longer ignore the reasonable fears of the great majority that there are simply too many people in these small islands.

It's nothing to do with race - and everything to do with numbers.

As for the sincerity of Mr Johnson's 'apology', just how stupid does he think the British electorate are?

Make Sir Fred pay

Former RBS chief Sir Fred Goodwin is living off a luxurious pension

The further countless billions being promised in yesterday's latest bank bailout are enough to make the average elector reel in dizziness.

One thing, however, should never be forgotten: nobody in Britain's history has cost the taxpayers of this country more than Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Yet where is this man, as ordinary Britons face years of crippling taxes to pay off the debts he ran up?

Isn't it beyond belief that he and his team are enjoying fabulous pensions - funded by the rest us - while they live in luxurious retirement?

Meanwhile in the City, bankers have already slipped back into their reckless ways, while a floundering Government does nothing to restrain them.

Indeed, the latest restructuring of RBS and Lloyds still involves lavish bonuses.

Two facts are now abundantly plain. One is that ministers are entirely out of their depth, allowing bankers to get away with anything they demand.

The other is that Sir Fred and his ilk should be spending their retirement behind bars.

Two faces of war

On the day when President Hamid Karzai is sickeningly hailed by world leaders as the victor of Afghanistan's travesty of an election, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid is killed as he attempts to defuse his 65th roadside bomb in Helmand Province.

Could any two men be less alike than the magnificently heroic British soldier, who repeatedly risked his life for democracy, and the deeply corrupt politician who abused it for his own self-aggrandisement?

Alas, the stories of these oh-so-different men sum up the tragedy and futility of our involvement in this unjust war.